2006 BU Summer II European History

Terms

Written by Karl Marx as a theory on political economy, and is also a criticism of capitalism. This is one of Marx's major works, and allowed him to pass on his ideas of communism to those who wanted to follow the path of government that he created.

Emmeline Pankhurst

One of the main pioneers of the push for female suffrage. The example that she played a large role in setting in England, led to the push for women's suffrage in other countries as well.

Monoculture

In this system of agriculture, a nation relies mainly on the production of one specific crop and nothing else. This led to problems because these nations would suffer extreme periods of economic depression when the crop's value went down or when there was a bad harvest.

Nietszche

Nietszche was a prominent critic of religion, morality, contemporary culture, and philosophy. He is famous for saying "God Is Dead". His perception and criticism helped to place industrialization into the place of religion.

The Berlin Conference

This was a meeting of the European powers, where they carved up Africa, ablolished the slave trade, and forbid the trading of alcohol and weaponry to the native people. This was important because it setup the modern countries in Africa, and set the foreign policy of the European powers when it came to colonization.

The Gulag Archipelago

Written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and it detailed the labor camps setup in the Soviet Union, and showed the world the cruelty involved in them. It was banned in the Soviet Union until 1989.

Hiroshima

Site of the first nuclear atttack. Killed about 160,000 people, mostly civilians. The dropping of the nuclear bomb entered the world into a new stage of warfare, and also later into the Cold War.

The EEC

The EEC was created in 1957, and followed the ECSC, and began with the original six nations. The EEC grew into the European Union, and basically linked the economies of it's member countries together.

Haile Selassie

Selassie was the Ethiopian Emperor at the time of the Italian Invasion of 1936. He protested the aggressions of the Italian Army at the League of Nations, but his call for help was not accepted by the European powers. His "unheard" requests at the League of Nations really topped off the ineffectivity of the group, and made it entirely useless.

Stalingrad

Stalingrad, is a major city in Russia, and was the home of one of the most important, if not most important battles of WWII between the Soviets and the Nazi's. The Soviets stopped the Nazi's advance at Stalingrad, and gradually began to force the Nazi's back into Germany until their defeat in 1945.

Gorbachev

Gorbachev became the Soviet Premier in 1985, and presided over the Soviet Union during it's collapse. He adopted fairly open policies towards the west, and began to dismantle the programs setup by Lenin and Stalin.

Containment Policy

This policy was adopted by the U.S., in an attempt to stop the spread of communism. The U.S. government stated that they would support any free nation that was being attacked by the communists, so that the Soviet Union would not be able to spread their power further without the U.S. spreading their power either.

The Opium War

This war was between the English and the Chinese. The Chinese emperor had adpoted a closed doors policy towards foreign trade. As a result, the British began to trade Opium to the Chinese, and as the Chinese became addicted, they were forced to trade with the English, and the emperor waged war on England, and lost, opening up the country to foreign trade and influence.

Crick & Watson

Crick and Watson are known for their discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule in the 1950's. Their work became the basis for the Human Genome Project, and was a major leap forward in the scientific and medical world.

The Lusitania

The Lusitania was a British cruise ship, that was supposed to only have people on board, including Americans. The ship was sunken by the Germans, and the American people became anxious for revenge and war. It turned out that the ship was carrying munitions and other war supplies though.

The Tet Offensive

This offensive took place on the Vietnamese New Year (Tet), and was the major turning point of the Vienam War. During the offensive, the Vietcong captured the majority of the major cities of Vietnam, including Saigon, and from that point onwards, the Americans began to move out of the country.

Les Fauves

Translation, The Beasts. These people were a group of French painters who used old colors and disproportionate figures to express themselves. These people changed the world of art, and displayed different aspects of the world and human life in a way that had never been used before.

On the Origin of Species

Charles Darwin was the author of this book, and basically, he described his theory of evolution and adaption within the book. This was one of the most controversial books in human history, and is still being disputed today. This book was the basis of the evolutionary argument, and once again, the teachings and the power of the church was weakened.

Lenin

Lenin was the founder of the Soviet Union, and was the most important political figure during the creation of a communist state in Russia. Lenin was able to set the basis of the the Communist Party in Russia, and placed a strong government at the head of the nation, overpowering all of the foreign powers who fought against the communist rise in the Russia.

League of Nations

This international organization was thought up by Woodrow Wilson, and was one of his fourteen points. After the war, the U.S. did not join the group, and the group proved to be ineffective because they lacked any means of enforcing their rule because they had no military force. The ineffective group did nothing to stop the aggression of the fascist nations at the start of World War II, and was eventually replaced by the UN in 1946.

Von Schlieffen Plan

This was the German strategy at the start of WWI. The Germans had planned to quickly destroy the French by passing through Belgium, and then they planned to turn to the Russian front to overpower them. This plan failed, and the Germans had a war on both fronts for a long period of time, which led to their loss of the war.

The Potato Famine

The Potato Famine wreaked havoc throughout Ireland, and led to the immigration of Irish into foreign lands, and mass death within Ireland. The ineffective English help during the famine also increased the Irish hatred toward the British, and made the British think of the Irish as an even lower group of people.

John Foster Dulles

Dulles was the Secretary of State under Dwight Eisenhower, and led the development of the mass retaliation plan. Through the completion of this plan, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were forced to create mutual treaties between each other, assuring each other that they would not start nuclear wars between them.

Charles DeGaulle

DeGaulle was the first president of the fifth republic of France, and was a former war leader in France during WWII. He created a new constitution to run France, and wanted France to be free of foreign rule.

Elvis Presley

Presley was rock star, who was extremely influential in the world of youth, and is even believed to represent the American Dream, rising from rags to riches. Presley helped to create, and set, the mentality of the youth of the U.S. and around the world for years to come

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created to try and stop the spread of the Iron Curtain of Communism from moving all over western Europe. The western powers created this group so that they would be able to stop any communist aggression, this led to the Warsaw Pact, created by the Soviet Union.

Mao Zedong

Mao was the communist leader of China, who overthrew the existing government, and later would play a role in the Korean War. Once China fell to communism, the domino theory was created, and the U.S. began to believe that they had reason to invade countries like Korea and Vietnam.

The New Deal

The New Deal was setup by Franklin D. Roosevelt, in hopes of bringing the U.S. out of the Great Depression. The policies created by FDR's administration have been called unconstitutional by some, but they did help to ease the situation within the country until WWII brought the U.S. out of the depression.

Joseph Stalin

Stalin was the gruesome leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Lenin, and a dispute with Trotsky. Stalin ruled with an iron fist, killing millions, and sending millions to labor camps throughout the country. He helped to keep the basis for the communist regime in Russia, and turn back the Nazi's.

The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was the effort that the U.S. put forth, to create the first nuclear bomb. The project was successful in creating the nuclear bomb, which was used later in the war, and entered the world into the nuclear age.

Margaret Sanger

Sanger funded the creation of the birth control pill, and really helped to revolutionize a woman's lifestyle because women were no longer forced to worry about becoming pregnant, and getting married, and now they could be active in the workforce for as long as they wantedl.

Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh was the Vienamese leader, who led the uprising against the French, and tried to setup a communist government in Vietnam until the U.S. intervened. The regime that Ho Chi Minh setup was successful in overpowering the U.S., and a communist state was setup after his death.

Otto von Bismarck

Bismarck was the leader of the German unification process. Bismarck was a very strong leader, and was one of the main reasons, if not the main reason that the Germans were able to unite. He did not believe in colonization, and felt that the process was far too expensive and not worthwhile.

October, 1929

In October of 1929, the U.S. stock market crashed, and left the U.S. and the a lot of the western world in an economic depression. This economic depression hit the U.S. extremely hard because it happened within the country, only WWII would bring the western world out of depression.

The Wansee Conference

At the Wansee Conference, the German military leaders devised the final solution for the Jews. It was at this conference that the German leaders authorized the extermination of enormous numbers of Jews with the use of poison gas and other methods.